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The TVlississippi Y)alleT; 



John Gilmary Shea. 



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mSTOlUVAL CLASSIC liEADINOS-No. 5. 



Discovery and Exploration 



OF THE 



Mississippi Valley. 



BY 



JOHN GILMARY SHEA. 




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4. King: Philip's War, and Witchcraft in New England. 

Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. 

5. Discovery and Exploration of the Mis^issii pi Valley. 

John Gilmary Shea. 

6. Champlain and His Associates. Francis Parkman, 

7. Braddock's Defeat. Francis Parkman. 

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Introduction. 



John Gilmary Shea was born in New York City, July 22, 
1824. His father, James Shea, having lost liis means by a finan- 
cial failure, opened a school, and in 1829 transported his pupils to 
Columbia Grammar School, and became one of its principals, lie 
married in 1820 a descendant of Nicholas Upsall, who came over 
with Gov. John Winthrop in 1630, and settled in Boston. Nicho- 
las Upsall figures as one of the chai-acters in Longfellow's " New 
England Tragedies," and his grave-stone is still to be seen on 
Copp's Hill. 

John Gilmary Shea in 1838, being then fourteen, made his 
first venture in the field of literature, and wrote an article on 
Cardinal Albornoz for the Young People's Magazine. 

The first-fruits of his studies and of the valuable unpublished 
material he had gathered from all available sources, and as a mem- 
ber of the New York Historical Society having access to its well- 
stored library, was a volume devoted to the " Discovery and Ex- 
ploration of the Mississippi Valley " (New York, 1853). 

This was well i-eceivcd both here and in England. The West- 
minster Revieiu called it "a most valuable and interesting vol- 
ume," and the London Athenceuni said that the author wrote 
" clearly, graphically, and with considerable eloquence." Recog- 
nized as one of the historical fccholars of the country he, was made 
an honorary member of the Wisconsin Historical Society, corre- 
sponding member of the Massachusetts and Maryland Historical 
Societies,and in time of nearly every historical society in the United 
States, Canada, and of similar organizations abroad; vice-presi- 
dent for New Jersey of the New England Historic CJencalogical 
Society; and in 1883 was made an honorary member of the Koyal 

3 



4 IXTRODUCTION. 

Academy of History, Madrid, being the only American who has 
ever received this honor. 

Having a natural taste for linguistics, and finding as he pur- 
sued his studies some knowledge of the Indian languages requisite 
he began investigating their structure, relationship, grammar, 
and vocabulary. His researches having brought together a num- 
ber of manuscripts, chiefly by early missionaries, and regretting 
tlie general indifference among American scholars for such studies, 
he published in 18G0 the first of a series in fifteen volumes of 
grammars and dictionaries of Indian languages, entitled *^ Library 
of American Linguistics," several of which he edited and pre- 
pared. No individual or society has ever yet done so much to 
save from oblivion the languages spoken by the aboriginal inhabi- 
tants of this country. The articles on Indian tribes in " Apple- 
ton's Cyclopaedia " are all from the pen of Dr. Shea. 

In 1857 he printed the first of a series, twenty-six little vol- 
umes, from early manuscripts, chiefly reh^ting to the missions. 
In these he adopted the type, initial letters, head-lines, and orna- 
ments used by Cramoisy, King's printer at Paris, who published 
the "Jesuit Relations." These volumes went mostly to amateurs 
here and in Europe, and are highly prized. 

The most important of iiis works on American History are: 
" History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of 
the United States " (1854; German translation, Wiirzburg, 1856) ; 
*' Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi" (Albany, 1862); 
'^ Novum Belgium : an Account of New Netherland in 1643-4" 
(New York, 1862); "The Operations of the French Fleet under 
Count de Grasse" (1864); and translations of Charlevoix's "His. 
tory and General Description of New France," with extensive 
notes (6 vols. 8vo, 1866-72); "Washington's Private Diary" (1861); 
Colden's "History of the Five Indian Nations," edition of 1727 
(1866); Alsop's "Maryland" (1869); ^aiennepin's Description of 
Louisiana" (1880); "Le Clercq's Establishment" (1881); "Pefia- 
losa's Expedition" (1882); "Catholic Church in Colonial Days" 
(1887); "Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll" (1888); "His- 
tory of Georgetown University" (1890). He is the author of 



INTRODUCTION. ^ 

some important chapters iu Winsor's " Narrative and Critical 
History " (18SG). Beginning in 1858, he edited for eight years 
tlie Hi.storic(d Magazine, and has contributed largely to periodi- 
cals and publications of historical societies. Other notices may 
be found in "A Cyclopaedia of American Literature/' by E. A. 
and G. Duyckinck (New York, 18G5, Vol. II); Appleton's "New 
American Cyclopaedia, (Vol. XV., New York, 187G); and in '' A 
Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and Amer- 
ican Authors," by S. Austin AUibone, Philadelphia (Vol. II.). 




9^ Lon?it»ilc Wo3f 89 from GreonivTch 85 



Maik^uette's Route 



Hennepin's. 



La Salle's 



Discovery ai^d ExPLOPtATiojs^ 

OF THE 

Mtssisstppi Valley. 



CHAPTER I. 

Ponce de Leon— pon' -thd da Id-oan'. Gri^o.l'^Q.—gree-luihl'-vdh. 

Rimini— bee -mee-nee. Alvarez de Tineia.—a7U-ixih' -reth da 

Pascua TloTiisL—pa/i -scoo-ah floree'- pee-mV -dah. 

dah. Espiritu — d-spee-ree' -tu. 

On" glancing at a map of America we are at once struck by 
the mighty river Mississippi, which, witli its countless branches, 
gathers the waters of an immense valley, and rolls its accumu- 
lated floods to the Gulf of Mexico. It affords a line of uninter- 
rupted communication for thousands of miles, which lias in our 
day peopled its banks with flourishing towns and cities. 80 
large a stream, so important a means of entering the heart of 
the continent, could not, it would be supposed, long remain un- 
known, or, known, remain unappreciated ; yet so, in fact, it 
was. Columbus himself entered the Gulf of Mexico, and ex- 
plored the southern line of coast till he reached the Isthmus of 
Panama, as Bastidas had done; but the discoverer of the "N'ew 
AVorld turned back ere-long, and Nombre de Dios remained the 
limit of discovery in that direction. Our southern coast-lino 
was as yet unknown. 

But in 1512 John Ponce de Leon obtained from the Spanish 
king power to discover and settle an island known only by rumor, 

7 



8 



THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



and called Bimini. Delayed for a year by the hostility of officials, 
Ponce de Leon embarked in 1513 and steered for the Bahamas, 
refitting his vessels at Guanahani, the first land discovered by 
Columbus. 

Then keeping on, as the great Genoese neglected to do, he 
reached the coast of the mainland on Easter Sunday, May 27th, 
and named the country Florida, from the Spanish name for the 
festival, Pascua Florida. From his landfall he steered south, 
named Cape Corrientes and the chain of islands called the 
Martyrs, turned the Cape of Florida, and entered the Gulf of 
Mexico, opening the way for the exploration of its northern 
shore. 

Meanwhile Grijalva and Cortes ' laid open the western shore 
of the Gulf, leaving only a comparatively small line of coast 
unexplored. In 1519 Francis de Garay, Governor of Jamaica, 
was induced by the great pilot Alaminos to undertake the task 
of exploration and colonization, which had brought to so many 
only disappointment and loss. Alonso Alvarez de Pineda, sent 
out by Garay with four caravels, doubled the Cape of Florida 
and surveyed the whole northern coast of the gulf till it turned 
southward, and kept on till he reached the Mexican river 
Panuco, which still bears the name he gave it. 

Meeting Cortes with his expedition here, in possession of the 
land he sailed back, and before long, scanning the coast with 
care, came to a river of very great volume, to which he gave the 
name of Rio del Espiritu Santo, or River of the Holy Ghost, 



1 Hernan Cortes, by his conquest of 
Mexico, fouiuled the great Spanish 
power in America. He was born at 
Medellin, Spain, in 1485. He came 
to America in 1504, and rose to com- 
mand. In November, 1518, he was 
sent with a fleet to explore. He dis- 
covered and conquered the rich 
native kingdom of Mexico. He was 
made Captain-general, and in time 



Viceroy. In Spain he w\is at first 
received with great honor, but was 
at times treated very coldly. Once 
he forced his way through the. 
country to the king's carriage. The 
monarch asked who he was. Cortes 
replied: "1 am a man who has 
gained you more provinces than your 
father left you towns." 



Till': MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 9 

which seems to indicate Wliitsuiiday ' as tliedayoi* its discovery. 
He found a large Indian town near the mouth, and remained 
there forty days, trading with the natives and careening liis 
vessels. 

It is even said that he ascended tlie river for some distance, 
finding Indian liamlets clustering on either sliore. Naming the 
country Amichel, Pineda returned to Cuba with much real in- 
formation, and many a wild story of fabulous wealth in the 
interior, wliich he picked up from the natives. 

Alonso Alvarez de Pineda stands thus as the discoverer of the 
Mississippi River. He remains in a dim twilight as the first 
white man known to have stood on the banks of the great river 
or to have stemmed its rapid current. It is gratifying, too, to 
think that his discovery was unsullied by any act of cruelty or 
injustice. 

Whitsunday in the year 1520 is thus apparently the day of 
the discovery of the Mississippi by European exploi-ers. This 
great river at once took its place on Spanish maps, although 
little was known of its course or magnitude. A map drawn 
up in 1520 to fix the limits of Garay's province, between it and 
Ponce de Leon's Florida on the east and separating his Amichel 
from the gi-ant to Vehizquez on the west, shows the Espiritu Santo 
or Mississippi traversing the land of Garay. 

The river appears on Maiollo's map in 1527, and the great map 
by Ribeiro two years later. French maps soon noted the mouth 
of the great river; and misled by its many mouths, some charts 
soon gave it a strange course, where a twofold river unites and 
divides in a most extraordinary fashion. 

^ Whitsunday, an ecclesiastical hoi- I memorate the descent of the Holy 
iday lifty days after Easter, to com- | Ghost on the Apostles. 



10 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLiJY. 



CHAPTER 11. 

Cabeza de Vaca — kah-hd'-mh da will- Cacique— /.a/i-sdeA;'. 

kali. Quigata — kee-gah' -tah. 

Cibola — see -ho lah. Coligoa — ko-lee' -gica. 

SeveHal expeditions were soon fitted out to explore and re- 
duce the realms of Florida. Brilliant, dai-ing, and adventurous 
attempts they were, and give the time that hue of chivalry which 
almost makes us forget the crimes characterizing it — crimes 
magnified and distorted indeed by foreign writers, but still, 
coolly and dispassionately examined, crimes that we must con- 
demn. 

Ponce de Leon, Cordova, and Ayllon had successively found 
death on the shores of Florida; but the spirit of the age was 
not damped. In 1538 Pampbilus de Narvaez undertook to con- 
quer and colonize the western coast of the gulf. He was 
driven on the Florida coast, and, after long and fruitless marches, 
endeavored, in wretched boats, to reach Tampico. 

Almost all his men perished : storms, disease, and famine swept 
them away, and the coast was whitened with their bleaching 
bones. A large number were lost at the mouth of the Mississippi, 
unable to stem or cross in their frail boats the mighty current as 
it poured into the gulf. A few with Cabeza de Vaca ^ were 
thrown on an island on the coast of Texas. After four years 
slavery, Cabeza de Vaca escaped, and struck inland with four 
companions. Taken for supernatural beings, they became the 
medicine-men of the tribes through which they passed, and, 
with as little difilculty as the Indian jugglers, established their 
reputation. 

With lives thus guarded by superstitious awe, they rambled 
onward to the Gulf of California, crossing the bison-plains and 
descrying, it maybe, the adobe towns of the half-civilized natives 



' Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was 
a Spaniard of noble family. After 
his wonderful escape and journey, 



he explored the ^reat River La Plata, 
in South America, in 1540. 



Tlli: MISSISSIITI VALLEY 



11 



of New Mexico, perched on thcdr rocky heights. C'iibeza cle ViiCca 
is the first known to liiive tniversed our teri'itoiy from sea to 
sea. lie must have passed the mouth of the Mississippi; but 
we in vain examine his narrative for any distinctive marks to 
distinguish it from any other large river that he met, exce^^t its 
great vohime. 

AVhen he and his companions suddenly appeared amid their 
countrymen in Mexico, their strange accounts, and an air of 
mysterious secrecy which they affected, gave a new impulse to 
the adventurous spirit of the age. 

In the spring of 1539 two attempts were made to reach the 
realm in the interior which Cabeza de Vaca had protested to be 
" the richest country in the world. ^' One of these exj^cditions 
started from the Pacific, the other from the Atlantic. The 
former was led by the Franciscan friar Mark, a native of Nice in 
Italy, who, burning with a desire of conquering for Christ the 
many tribes within, set out from Culiacan with a negro compan- 
ion of Cabeza de Vaca, and crossing the desert wastes, reached the 
Colorado; but after gazing from a commanding height on the 
embattled towers of Cibola, with its houses rising story above 
story, and its gateways so well glazed that they seemed masses of 
turquoise, he returned with baffled hopes, for the natives had 
refused him entrance, and actually cut off his negro guide and 
a large party of friendly Indians. Friar Mark, on his return, 
raised the hopes of the Spanish authorities still higher, and his 
statements, apparently true in themselves, were so understood 
by the excited imaginations of all as to leave impressions far from 
the reality. An ideal kingdom rose into existence, and a new 
expedition was projected. This reached the valley of tlie Missis- 
sippi; but before we trace its course we must go back to the 
Atlantic expedition of 1539. 

It was commanded by the successful Ferdinand de Soto,* 



' Ferdinand de Soto was born at 
Jeres, Simin, about loOO. In 1538 
lie explored Guatemala and Yucatan, 
served under Pizarro in the conquest 



of Peru, and captured Cusco. He 
was notorious for his harsh and 
cruel treatment of the Indians. 



j[2 THJi: 3IISSISSIFPI VALLEY. 

who had risen by the conquest of Pern to rank and wealth, and 
was now governor of the rich island of Cuba. With a force far 
superior to any that had yet landed on the continent, he 
entered Florida and with his gallant array struck into the 
unknown interior. The Mississippi, under its name of Espiritu 
Santo, was not unknown to him, but it was only after months of 
weary marching, of unspeakable hardships, of stubborn battles 
with fierce tribes, that he really came to the long-sought Rio del 
Espiritu Santo. It was the Mississippi. 

Here all doubt vanishes. Listen to the characteristic descrip- 
tion of the most detailed narrative: ^'The river,'' says the un- 
known Portuguese, "was almost half a league broad; if a man 
stood still on the other side, it could not be discerned whether he 
was a man or no. The river was of great depth, and of a strong 
current ; the water was always muddy ; there came down the 
river continually many trees and timber, which the force of the 
water and stream brought down." And the inhabitants were 
not unworthy of the great river. " The cacique came with two 
hundred canoes full of Indians with their bows and arrows, 
painted, with great plumes of white and many-colored feathers, 
with shields in their hands, wherewith they defended the rowers 
on both sides, and the men of war stood from the head to the 
stern with their bows and arrows in their hands. 

'* The canoe wherein the cacique sat had a canopy over the 
stern, and he sat beneath it; and so were the other canoes of 
the principal Indians. And from under the canopy where the 
chief man sat, he commanded and governed the other people.'' 

From the frequent mention of the river in Biedma's narrative 
we may infer that allusion to it was suppressed, or, at most, 
mysteriously made by Cabeza de Vaca, and that it was supposed 
to be the key to his land of gold. Certain it is, that the hopes 
of the Spaniards seem liere to brighten; they built boats, the first 
European craft constructed to traverse the river, and crossed to 
the western side some twenty or thirty miles, as modern investi- 
gators tell us, below the mouth of the Arkansas. 

The country reached by the Spaniards at this time was one of 



THtJ MlSSlSSirri VALLEY. 13 

large aud populous towns, well defended by palisades and towers, 
pierced with regular loop-iioles, and surrounded by well-made 
ditches. De Soto ascended the river, and, striking on a higher, 
drier, and more champaign country than lie had yet seen, pro- 
ceeded onward to Pacaha, a place it would not be easy now to 
locate. 

The Mississippi was thus explored for a considerable distance; 
but far other than commercial or colonial projects filled the mind 
of De Soto; he stood by what we know an outlet to the sea, a 
great artery of the continent, but his splendid array had dwindled 
away, and the rich realm of Cabeza de Vaca had not yet re- 
warded his many trials. Nerved by despair, he marched north- 
east till he found himself among the wandering Indians of the 
plains, with their portable cabins. This was his highest point, 
and could not have been far from the Missouri. 

He then turned southwest again to the Arkansas, at the large 
town of Quigata, to. seek guides to lead the remnant of his array 
to the southern sea. But Coligoa, beyond the mountains, tempted 
him to the northwest again; yet Coligoa ill-i-epaid the toil: it 
was poorer than the well-built towns he had left behind. 



CHAPTER in. 

'!^dLm(io— tall-nee' -ko. Tampico — tahm pee'-ko. 

Vicanque — vee-hihn' -ke. J/Lnscossi—vioos-ko -so. 

Guachoya — gwali-clio' -yah. Coronado — ko-ro-nah' -do. 

Aminaya — ah-mee-iMh'-yah. Ta.diU.a.—2}ah-de€i -yah. 

Striking west and southwest again, Soto seemed to have once 
more reached the Arkansas at Cayas, and ascended it to the town 
Tanico, with its lake of hot water and saline marshes. Turning 
then to the south and east he again reached Vicanque, also on the 
Arkansas, and, wintering there, descended its current in the 
spring of 1542, to die on the banks of the Mississippi. ]\[uscoso, 
who took command of the expedition, after wundeiing about for 



14 THE 3nSSmSIPFI VALLEY. 

some time, disheartened at the prospect before him, returned to 
the Mississippi, and ascending above Guachoya, where De Soto 
had died, halted at Aminaya. Here the Spaniards, working np all 
their chains and iron into nails, began to build vessels to navi- 
gate the great river. The place where these first brigantines 
were built has not been clearly settled; its Indian name, Aminaya, 
has left no trace. Here ^^ seven brigantines were constructed, 
well made, save that the planks were thin, because the nails were 
short, and were not pitched, nor had they any decks to keep the 
water from coming in. 

" Instead of decks they laid planks whereon the mariners 
might run to trim their sails, and the people might refresh 
themselves above and below." They were finished in June, and 
'' it pleased God that the flood came up to the town to seek the 
brigantines, from whence they carried them by water to the 
river." Thus three hundred and twenty-two Spaniards sailed 
from Aminaya on the 2d of July, 1543, and, passing Guachoya, 
were attacked by the people of Quigalta, who pursued them for 
many days, and did considerable harm to the little fleet. At 
last, however, on the eighteenth day they reached the Gulf of 
Mexico, after having sailed, as they computed, two hundred and 
fifty leagues down the river. Hence, after many dangers and 
hardships, the survivors, coasting along, gained Tampico, 
'^whereat the viceroy and all the inhabitants of Mexico won- 
dered," says the chronicle. Such is, in brief, the history of the 
Mississippi, as explored by De Soto and his successor, Muscoso, 
the first who sailed 

" Down the great river to the opening gulf." 

The account they gave received additional confirmation from 
the contemporaneous expedition which set out from the shores of 
the Pacific. This was a striking contrast to that of De Soto. 
While the march of the latter was marked with disaster, slaughter, 
and ruin, Coronado's well-handled force explored a vast extent of 
territory without a single misfortune, and almost without coming 
into collision with a native, tribe. Guided by the adventurous 



THE MlSSISSTrn VALLEY. I5 

Fcitlicr ]\Iiirk, Coronado reached and took Cibola, our modern 
Zufii, which proved of little importance. Ascending the Col- 
orado, the commander left its valley and crossed the liio Grande 
in search of Quivira. A faithless guide promised him gold in 
all abundance, and others as faithless then led him up and down 
the prairies watered by the upper branches of the Arkansas and 
Platte, till lie in all probability reached the Missouri. 

He could not have been far from that river when Muscoso 
heard of him by a runaway slave ; but neither trusted the ac- 
counts which he received, and Coronado's well-appointed expedi- 
tion never met the starved remnant of 8oto's chivalry, although 
the two expeditions, one from the Atlantic, the other from the 
Pacific, thus nearly met in the heart of our nothern continent. 
At Tiguex, before he reached the Rio Grande, Coronado had 
found a Florida Indian whose description of the Mississippi 
tallies very well with that of the gentleman of Elvas who chron- 
icles Soto's march. " This river in his country,"' he said, "was 
two leagues wide, and that they found fish in it as large as horses, 
and that they had on it canoes which could hold twenty rowers 
on each side, and that the lords sat at the stern under a canopy." 
At the Rio Grande too Coronado heard, from the roving Indians 
of the plains, "that, marching toward the rising sun, he should 
meet a very great river, the banks of which he could follow for 
ninety days without leaving inhabited countrj^ They added 
that the first village was called Ilaxa, and that the river was more 
than a league wide, and that a great number of canoes were con- 
stantly seen on its waters." 

Coronado actually pushed on till he reached the district 
called Quivira by the natives, and which was somewhere between 
the Missouri and the Mississippi, lie found it only a land of un- 
civilized Indians, without gold or other wealth. Yet two mis- 
sionaries, who accompanied his expedition, when he turned back 
towards New Mexico, resolved to remain, in the hope of convert- 
ing the natives to faith in ('lirist. But the hope was vain. 
Father John de Padilla and his associate soon fell victims to the 
cruelty which prevaih^l among the benightiul Indian tribes. 



16 THE MISS IBS irri VALLEY. 

Thus from east and west the Spaniards gained information of 
a great river running from north to south through the northern 
continent of America. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Espejo— as-pa/-7io. "RodixigViQz—ro-dree'-gTies. 

Juan de Onate — hwan da on-yali'-teh. Vmsinsi—oo-mahn' -yah. 

Tviehlo—pwu' -Mo. BensividLes—bd-nah-vee'-des. 
Leiva Bonilla — Id-ee'-vah ho-neeV-yah. 

Such clear accounts of a great river which Soto had found 
navigable for at least a tliousand miles, and which formed a 
natural frontier for any colony, ought naturally to have drawn 
the attention of the Spanish Government to it, and shown its 
importance ; but we find no notice of Spanish vessels entering 
the Mississippi to explore its course, study the resources of the 
country, or even to open trade for bison-skins and slaves. Acci- 
dent occasionally brought some Spanish vessel to its banks, but 
these visits are few and brief, and led to no result. The Missis- 
sippi was soon forgotten, and although it had been explored for 
at least a thousand miles, known to have at least two branches 
equal in size to the finest rivers of Spain, to be nearly a league 
wide and perfectly navigable, it is laid down on maps as an in- 
significant stream, often not even distinguished by its name of 
Espiritu Santo, or worked into an absurd network of rivers. 
Sometimes, indeed, we are left to conjecture what petty line was 
intended for the great river of the West. Yet fresh data were 
constantly added. 

Thus in 1553 a rich argosy from Vera Cruz, after stopping at 
Havana, was wrecked on the Florida coast, and a few survivors 
reached Tampico by land, escaping from the constant and terri- 
ble attacks of tlie natives. In consequence of this and other dis- 
asters, the King of Spain ordered the reduction of Florida and 
the establishment of a settlement which might be a place of 



THE M ISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 17 

refuge for his ships and for his subjects who miglit be driven on 
that dangerous and inhospitable shore. 

Every precaution was taken to insure success. After the 
country had been explored and a site for the settlement selected, 
an army of 1500 men was fitted cut under Don Tristan de Luna, 
who sailed in 1559, carrying with him every known survivor of 
any expedition to Florida or wreck on its shores. De Luna 
reached Pensacola harbor in safety, and liad sent back two vessels 
to announce his arrival in Florida, when a sudden cyclone dashed 
all the rest of his fleet to pieces. Left in as sore a plight as 
any shipwrecked party had been, Tristan de Luna applied to 
Mexico for aid, and, undismayed, advanced to the Indian town of 
Nanipacna, which the natives had restored after its destruction by 
De Soto. Lured by flattering accounts of the rich country of 
Coosa, the Spanish commander dispatched a party of two hun- 
dred under his sergeant-major, accompanied by two Dominican 
priests. The detachment reached Coosa in safety, entered into 
an alliance offensive and defensive with the cacique, who was 
then at war with the Napochies (probably the Natchez), a 
tribe on the Ochechiton, or Great \Yater, which the Spaniards 
took to be the sea. An expedition was soon set on foot against 
the Natchez, and the cacique went at the head as never chief of 
Coosa went before, on a gallant Arabian steed, with a negro groom 
at his horse's head. Defeating the enemy, the allies reached the 
Ochechiton, which proved to be a mighty river, the Eio del 
Espiritu Santo — in other words, the Mississippi, thus once more 
visited by Spanish adventurers and missionaries. Revolts had 
meanwhile arisen in De Luna's camp, his projected settlement 
failed, and vessels came to bear away the remnant of his ill- 
conducted plan of settlement. The Mississippi and its advan- 
tages were once more ignored by Spain. 

Yet the river was soon reached again from the West. It 1580 
Brother Augustine Ruiz, a humble Franciscan friar, resolved to 
penetrate to civilized tribes on the upixM- Rio Graiule, of whom 
he had heard. A brave man of the time, Francis Sanchez Cha- 
muscado, offered with a few others to escort the inissioiuiries, 



18 THE 3IISSISSTPPI VALLEY. 

and actually conducted them to New Mexico, as Friar Augustine 
named the district. 

Here Ohamuscado left his name on Inscription Rock, where it 
remains to this day/aud, seeing the missionaries well received by 
the Pueblo Indians, returned. The Christian envoys, however, 
soon became victims to savage cruelty. When this became known, 
Antonio de Espejo led an expedition to the country, only to es- 
tablish the fact of the assassination of Friar Augustine and his 
two priestly companions. 

Espejo explored the country, and on his return sought per- 
mission to reduce and colonize it. He did not, however, possess 
sufficient influence in the court circles of Mexico or Spain. The 
task and honor were assigned to Don Juan de Onate, who could 
boast of kinship with Cortes and Montezuma. Even he met 
with many difficulties and contradictions, so that it was not till 
1598 that he reached the first Pueblo town, on the Rio Grande. 
Meanwhile other expeditious had set out for New Mexico in 
defiance of the orders issued by the Viceroy of New Spain. 
One of these was commanded by Captain Leiva Bonilla, who 
reaching New Mexico, pushed on across the bison plains towards 
the rising sun. While Onate was encamped near Puaray, a 
Pueblo town in which Brother Rodriguez had been slain, an In- 
dian from Bonilla's party reached his expedition. This man 
reported that Bonilla, the commander of the part}^, had been 
killed by Umana, one of his force, and that he had left this new 
leader on the banks of a river six hundred good miles from 
Onate's camp, a river of such width and volume tliat it was a 
full league across. Bonilla had reached the Mississippi or Mis- 
souri. His tragic fate — slain by one of his own command on the 
banks of the great river in 1598 — strangely preludes and presages 
that of La Salle nearly a century afterward. 

As late as 1G30 a writer in New Mexico tells of one Vincent 
Gonzales who sailed up a large river between Apalache and Tam- 
pico and approached very near the land of Quivira. Benavides, 
who states this, believed the river to be the Espiritu Santo or 
Mississippi. 



THE MlSSISSUTl VALLKY. 19 

Yet only a few years after this Spanish writer's work ap- 
peared, the French, who liad penetrated from tlieir petty settle- 
ment at Quebec to the greatest of the Upper Lakes, began to liear 
from Indian tribes, whose friendsliip they had won, about a lai-ge 
and beautiful river, tlie Ohio of the Huron tribes, tlie Mississippi 
of the Algonquins. As early as 1G39 the adventurous and noble- 
hearted Sieur Nicolet, the interpreter of the French colony, 
had struck west of the Ilurons and, reaching the last limit of 
Algonquin speech, found himself among the Ouinipegon (Win- 
nebagoes), "a people called so because they came from a distant 
sea, but whom some French erroneously called Puants," says 
this early account. Like the Nadowessis, they spoke a language 
distinct from the Huron and Algonquin. 

With these Nicolet entered into friendly relations, and, ex- 
ploring Green Bay, ascended Fox Kiver to its portage and em- 
barked on a river flowing west ; and says Father Vimont, " the 
Sieur Nicolet, who had penetrated farthest into those distant coun- 
tries, avers that had he sailed three days more on a great river 
which flows from that lake (Green Bay), he would have found the 
sea/' This shows that Nicolet, like De Luna's lieutenant, mistook 
for the sea the Indian term Great Water applied to the Mississippi. 
It is certain, then, that to Nicolet is due the credit of having been 
the first to reach a northern tributary of the Mississippi. The 
hope of reaching the Pacific soon aroused the courage of the mis- 
sionaries. Some fathers invited })y the Algonquins were to be sent 
to ^' those men of the other sea;" but adds Vimont, prophetically, 
" Perhaps this voyage will be reserved for one of us who have 
some little knowledge of the Algonquin." 



20 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



CHAPTER V. 

Garreau — gar'-ro. Ilimouek — il-liim! -oo-ek. 

Winnipegouek — win-rSi. peg'-ooeTc. Nadouessiouek— ?^,^^rfc>c»-ei•'-6•^-6>6»-<?^^ 

Ontoagannha — on-to-ag' -an-ha. Assistaectaeronnous — as-sis-iecter- 
Menard — md'-nard. . on'-no-us. 

AUouez — ah'-loo-d. 

In" 1641 two Jesuits from the Huron Mission, the illustrious 
Isaac Jogues and Charles liaymbaut, were actually sent to Sault 
St. Mary's, and they too heard of the Sioux and the river on 
which they lay, and they burned to enter those new realms and 
speak that language yet unknowni, which fell so strangely on their 
ears now used to Huron and Algonquin sounds. The next year 
the Iroquois war broke out in all its fury, and the missionaries 
had to' abandon all hopes of extending their Christian explora- 
tions to the west. The war proved fatal to the allies of the 
French ; by 1650, all Upper Canada was a desert, and not a mis- 
sion, not a single Indian, was to be found, where but a few years 
before the cross towered in each of their many villages, and hun- 
dreds of fervent Christians gathered around their fifteen mis- 
sionaries. The earth still reeked with the blood of the pastor 
and his flock ; six missionary fathers had fallen by the hands of 
the Iroquois, another had been fearfully mutilated iu their hands. 
But scarce was there a ray of peace when the survivors of this 
undaunted missionary corps were again summoned to the west. 

A fitild opened on Lake Superior. Father Garreau was sent 
in 165-1, but was killed ere he left the St. Lawrence. De Groseil- 
lers and another Freiichman, more fortunate, wintered on the 
shores of Lake Superior in 1658; they too visited the Sioux, and 
from the fugitive Hurons among them heard still clearer tidings 
of a great river on which they had struck as plunging through 
unknown wood and waste, over cliffs and mountains, when they 
had sought to escape the destructive hand of the pursuing Iro- 
quois. ^^ It was a beautiful river," writes the annalist, ^* large, 



TJiK Mississirn vallky . 21 

broad, and deep, which would bear comparison, llicy yjiy, with 
our St. Lawrence.'' Ou its banks they I'ound tlie Abimiwec, the 
Ilinois of later days. 

Mother Mary of the Incarnation tlie famous foundress of the 
UrsuUne Convent, Quebec, wrote in 1G54: *' Very distant In- 
dians say that beyond their country is a very spacious rivei-, wliich 
em^ities into a great sea, wliich we take to be the China Sea." 

From other quarters too the missionaries began to hear of 
this great river. The missionaries on the Saguenay heard of the 
Winnipegouek, aiul their bay whence three seas could be reached, 
the north, tlie south, and the west. The missionaries in New 
York saw Iroquois war parties set out against the Ontoagannha, 
whose towns *May on a beautiful river (Ohio) which leads to the 
great lake, as they call the sea, wh-ere they traded with Europeans, 
who pray to God as we do, and have rosaries, and bells to call 
men to prayers." This sea, the missionaries,judged, must be the 
Gulf of Mexico or that of California. Meanwhile Menard, an 
old Huron missionary, proceeded, in 16G0, to Lake Superior, and 
founded an Ottawa mission on the southern shore. He too heard 
of the Mississippi, and had resolved to reach the nations on its 
banks, undeterred by the difficulties of the w^ay ; but a work of 
charity called him to another quarter, and a death in the wilder- 
ness arrested his projects, before which one of half his years 
would have recoiled. Ilis successor. Father Allouez, also heard 
of the great river, "which empties," says he, '^ as far as I can 
conjecture, into the sea by Virginia." lie heard too of the 
Ilimouek and the Nadouessiouek ; and here, for the first time, 
we find the river bear a name. " They live," says he, " on the 
great river called Messipi." 

The western mission now received new accessions, and the 
Jesuit hopes of entering the great river became more and more 
sanguine. The distinguished Father Dablon was sent out as 
superior of the Ottawa missions. A station among the Illinois 
was determined upon. Father Marquette was named to begin it, 
and the study of the Illinois language actually begun by that 
missionary. From the accounts of a young man who was his 



22 THE 31ISISltiSlPPI VALLEY. 

master in that Liiiguagc, he formed new conjectures as the mouth 
of the river, for he studied tlie country as well as the language, 
and was apparently tlie first who heard of the Missouri Kiver. 
As to his intended voyage, the enterprising missionary says: " If 
the Indians who promise to make me a canoe do not break their 
Avord, we shall go into this river as soon as we can, witli a French- 
man and this young man given me, who knows some of these 
languages, and has a readiness for learning others. We shall visit 
the nations that inliabit them, in order to open the passage to so 
many of our fathers, who have long awaited this happiness. This 
discovery will give us a complete knowledge of the southern or 
western sea." 

Meanwhile Allouez, on the 3d of November, 16G9, left Sault St. 
Mary's, to visit Green Bay. With great danger and hardships he 
reached it, and spent the Avinter preaching to the Pottawatomies, 
Menomonees, Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes, whom he found 
mingled there. On the IGth of April, 1670, he began to ascend 
Fox River, and passing two rapids reached Winnebago Lake, and 
crossing it, came to a river ^'from a wild-oat lake." He was now, 
however, in search of the Outagamis or Foxes, and turned up 
their river. He found them dejected by the loss of several 
families carried off by the Sanecas on the banks of Lake Machi- 
higaning (our Lake Michigan). After consoling them as he 
could, he explained the object of his coming, and after giving 
them his first general instruction in Christianity, sailed down 
their river again and continued his way to the toAvn of the Mach- 
koutench, whom says he, the Hurons call Assistaectaeronnous, or 
Fire Nation. To reach them he traversed the lake or marsh at the 
head of the Wisconsin, for they lay on that river. " It was," he 
says, ''a beautiful river, running soutlnvest, without any rapid." 
*at leads," he says farther on, ''to the great river named Messi- 
sipi, which is only six days' sail from here." Thus Allouez stood 
by a tributary of the Mississippi, as Nicolet had done thirty 
years before. 



THE MISSlSSirri VALLEY. 23 



CHAPTER VI. 

Chagoimegon — shd-goi-vie-gon. Dablon — da-blon' . 

There was now no ditliculty in nttaining the great river 
itself : an easier way lay open tlian tliat from Chagoimegon. 
Fatlier Dablon wished to visit tlie spot in person, and in comi)any 
with Allouez he returned to Green Bay, and as early as Septem- 
ber in the same year botli were again at Maskoutens. Father 
Dablon had meanwhile been named Superior-General of the 
Canada missions, and seems to liave taken tlie more interest in 
the exploring of tlie Mississippi by the AVisconsin route as the 
projected Illinois mission of Father Marquette was, for a time at 
least, defeated. The peace on wliieh they relied was suddeidy 
destroyed ; the Sioux, provoked by the rash insolence of the 
Ilurons and Ottawas, declared war and sent back to the mission- 
ary the pictures which he had given them. 

Stratagem enabled them to neutralize the advantage which 
firearms gave their enemies ; the Ilurons and Ottawas were com- 
j)letely defeated, and fugitives already before the face of the Iro- 
quois, they now fled again from a more terrible foe in the west. 
All hopes of his Illinois mission being thus dashed, the dejected 
Marquette followed his fugitive flocks ; and as the Ottawas pro- 
ceeded apart to Manitoulin, he accompanied the Ilurons to 
Mackinaw. Here, doubtless, a hope of reaching the Mississippi 
by the Wisconsin again roused him, as we soon find it the burden 
of his thoughts. 

Dablon published the Iielations of 1070-71, and its map of 
Lake Superior. In his description of the maj) he thus alludes to 
the ^lississippi : ^*To the south flows the great river which they 
call the Missisipi, wliitdi can have its mouth only in the Florida 
sea, more than four hundred leagues from here." Farther on he 
says: '^I deem it pro[)er to set down here all we have learnt of 
it. This river seems to encircle all our lakes, rising iu the north 



24 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

and running to the south till it empties in a sea, which we take 
to be the Red Sea (Gulf of California) or that of Florida; as we 
have no knowledge of any great rivers in those |)arts which 
empty into those two seas. 

Some Indians assure us that tliis river is so beautiful, that 
more than three hundred leagues froui its mouth it is larger than 
that which flows by Quebec, as they make it more than a league 
wide. They say, moreover, that all this vast extent of country is 
nothing but prairies, without trees or woods, which obliges the 
inhabitants of those parts to use turf for fuel, till you come about 
twenty leagues from the sea. Here the forests begin to appear 
again. Some warriors of this country (Maskoutens), who say tliat 
they have descended that far, assure us that they saw men like the 
French, who were splitting trees with long knives, some of whom 
had their house on the water — thus they explained their mean- 
ing, speaking of sawed planks and ships. They say besides, that 
all along this great river are various tawns of different nations, 
languages, and customs, who all make war on each other ; some 
are situated on the river side, but most of them inland, continuing 
thus up to the nation of the Nadouessi, who are scattered over 
more than a hundred leagues of country." 

The course of the Mississippi, its great features, the nature 
of the country, were all known to the western missionaries and 
the traders, who alone with them carried on the discovery of the 
west. Among the latter was Jolliet, who in his rambles also 
penetrated near the Mississippi. As the war seemed an obstacle 
to so hazardous an undertaking, the missionaries, it would appear, 
urged the French Court to set on foot an expedition. Marquette 
held himself in readiness to leave Mackinaw at the first sign of his 
superior's will ; and at last, on the 4th of June, 1672, the French 
minister wrote to Talon, then intendant of Canada : '"' As after the 
increase of the colony there is nothing more important for the 
colony than the discovery of a passage to the south sea, his majesty 
wishes you to give it your attention." 

Talon was then about to return to France, but recommended 
Jolliet to the new governor, Frontenac, who had just arrived. 



THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 25 

The lattex- approved the choice, and Jolliet received his proper 
instructions from tlie new intendant. '' The Chevalier do Grand 
Fontaine/'' writes Frontenac on the 2d of November, "lins 
deemed expedient for tlie service to send the Sieiir Jolliet to 
discover the south sea by the Maskoutens country, and the great 
river Mississippi, which is believed to empty in the California 
sea. He is a man of experience in this kind of discovery, and 
has already been near the great river, of which he i:)romises to 
see the mouth." 

Of the missionaries, two seemed entitled to tlic honor of explor- 
ing the great river : Allouez, the first to reach its tributary waters; 
and Marquette, who had been for some years past appointed mis- 
sionary to the Illinois. The latter was chosen, and tlie selection 
seemed a reward of his pious desires, for since his departure from 
Chegoimegon he had constantly offered up his devotions to the 
Blessed Virgin Immaculate, to obtain the grace of reachino- the 
Mississippi. What was his joy when, on the very festival dearest 
to his heart, that of the Immaculate Conception, Jolliet arrived 
with his commission from the governor, and delivering to the 
missionary the letters of his superiors whicli bade him embark at 
last, in his company to carry out the design so long and so foiully 
projected. 

"The long-expected discovery of tlie Mississippi was now 
at hand, to be accomplished by Jolliet of Quebec, of whom 
tiiere is scarce a record but this one excursion that gives him 
immortality and by Marquette; who, after years of pious assiduity 
to the poor wrecks of llurons, whom he planted near abundant 
fislieries, on the cold extremity of Michigan, entered with equal 
iiumility upon a career which exposed liis life to perpetual danger, 
and by its results affected the destiny of nations.'' So wrote a 
great historian years ago; but Louis Jolliet is now better known. 
While French rule prevailed in Canada only natives of France 
had any great opportunity of rising to places of honor and profit. 
There, as in our English colonies, men born on the free soil of 
America, with no fi'iejids at court, could hope for little encour- 
agemont froni the royal circle in Europe, or the petty pomp and 



26 



THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



state of a colonial governor in America. So it fared with Lonis 
Jolliet, the son of a blacksmith.^ 



CHAPTER VII. 



DoUier — dol-yd' . 



Montagnais —mon-ian'-yd. 



LdL^ointe—lah-pwant' . 



JoLLiET was born in Quebec^ September 21, 1645, and was 
educated by the Jesuits, who saw his talent and ability. His mind 
turned first to the Church, where in those days tlie poor man's 
son found almost the only way to eminence, for it was truly 
democratic in this respect. But he soon felt that a more 
stirring and adventurous life was intended for him. Studying 
in the Jesuit School of Hydrography how to seize and lay down 
the main features of a new country, and then fill in the details, 
his miud was enlarged by a visit to Europe. Then in 1G69 he 
was sent by the Canadian Government with John Pere to study 
and report on the mineral resources of Lake Superior. 

Between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, as he was returning, 
taking a route then unknown, he met Dollier de Casson and La 
Salle on their way westward, and not only gave them a knowledge 
of the country, but even a map. To reach the Mississippi, the 
frank young Canadian advised them to take the route by way of 
Green Bay and the Wisconsin. He was thus a man fitted for the 
task by his training, and with a practical knowledge of the West, 



^ Louis JoUiet was born in Quejjec, 
and was educated in the Jesuit col- 
lege there, and in their School of 
Hydrography. He became a good 
mathematician, able to map out a 
new country. Though intended 
originally for the Church, he entered 
the government service. The king 
would not give him the right to j 
colonize the valley of the Missssippi, i 



but rewarded him with the barren 
island of Anticosti at the mouth of 
the St. Lawrence, and with a tract 
since known as Joiiet. He was also 
appointed Royal Hydrographer, and 
prepared many valuable maps and 
cliarts. He died about 1700. Many 
or his descendants have held impor- 
tant positions in Canada. 



THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 27 

wlien he was selected by Talon to undertake to explore the 
course of the Mississippi Kiver. 

The Jesuit missionary James Marquette was a native of 
Laon, an ancient city on the mountain side in France, near the 
river Oise, in the present Department of Aisne. He belonged 
to the most ancient family in the renowned city, which gave 
members age after age to the military achievements of France, 
from the days of the Crusades to the campaign of Rochambeau 
on our own soil. Born at the ancient seat of his family in 1G37, 
he was, through his mother, Rose de la Salle, allied to the 
blessed John Baptist de la Salle, founder of the Christian 
Schools, whose services in the cause of gratuitous education had 
instructed thousands of the poor before our modern systems of 
public schools were thought of. 

Trained to piety from his youth, he resolved to devote his life 
to the service of God, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1654. 
After spending twelve years in the colleges and missions of the 
order in Europe, his desire for employment in converting the 
heathen was gratified. He was sent to Canada; and after acquir- 
ing a knowledge of the Montagnais, an Algonquin language 
spoken on the lower St. Lawrence, he set out from Quebec, April 
21, 1668, with a flotilla of Ottawa canoes which had descended 
from the upper lakes to trade their peltries for European goods. 
His destination was the mission on Lake Superior, founded by 
Menard ; but he found the Indians in full retreat before the 
Dakotas. Planting his cabin at the foot of Sault Sainte Marie, 
on the southern side, he began his missionary career, and the next 
year erected a church with the aid of Father Dablon, who had 
joined him. As soon as Lake Superior was open, however, he 
proceeded to the old mission of Saint Esprit, at Lapointe, where 
he met bands of Illinois, and became interested in the tribe. 
"When the Illinois come to Lapointe," he wrote, "they pass a 
large river almost a league wide. It runs north and south, and 
so far that the Illinois, who do not know what canoes are, have 
never yet heard of its mouth; they only know that there are 
very great nations below them, some of whom raise two crops of 



38 THE MISSISSIFPI VALLEY. 

Indian corn a year/* " This great river can hardly empty in Vir- 
ginia, and we rather believe that its mouth is in California. If 
the Indians who have promised to make me a canoe do not dis- 
appoint me, we shall go into this country as soon as we can/' 

He learned all he could about the position, numbers, lan- 
guage, and disposition of the tribes to the south and west. But 
his projected missionary expedition was baffled. His Algonquin 
neophytes fled, aud Marquette was left with the Hurons, who lin- 
gered at Chagoimegon. Before long this tribe resolved to move 
eastward to Mackinac, an attractive point for trade, and for its 
wonderful abundance of whitefish. Here on the northern shore 
he raised a log chapel dedicated to Saint Ignatius, and the place 
still bears the name of Point St. Ignace. Some Ottawas soon 
pitched their cabins near the Huron palisade, and Father Mar- 
quette, resigning as hopeless his projects of discovery, quietly 
continued his missionary labors among the Indians around his 
chapel, with little to cheer or encourage him. 

But who, the reader may ask, were the Hurons with whom 
the missionary's career seems thus linked, yet who at first were 
not the special object of his care. It is a tale worthy of an 
historian. 

The Wendats, whom the French called Hurons and the En- 
glish Wyandots, are a nation of the same stock as the Iroquois. 
They were one of the first tribes known to the French, to whom 
they always remained closely united. They were a trading 
people, and their many fortified towns lay in a very narrow strip 
on Georgian Bay, a territory smaller than the state of Delaware. 
Between the west and southwest lay in the mountains the kin- 
dred tribe of the industrious Tionontates, whose luxuriant fields 
of tobacco won them from the early French the name of Petuns, 
while south of both, from Lake St. Claire to Niagara and even 
slightly beyond were the allied tribes, which from the con- 
nection between their language and that of the Hurons, were 
called by the latter Attiwandaronk, but Neutral by the French, 
from their standing aloof in the great war waged by the Iroquois 
against the Hurons and Algonquins. 



THE MISSISSIPJ'I VALLEY. 29 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Brehevif—bre-berf. J/L&rqviette— mar- keC . 

Gamier — garn-7/d' . Cartier — kart-yd ' . 

No sooner had the Frencli founded Quebec tbim tlie Fran- 
ciscan missionaries attempted the conversion of the llurons. 
Father Joseph Le Caron, the founder of that mission, wintered 
among them in 1GI5, and in subsequent years other recollects 
did their best to prepare them for the faith. The Jesnits were 
at last called in by the recollects to aid them% and laboring 
together in harmony, they looked forward with sanguine hope to 
the speedy conversion of the llurons and Neuters, for they, too, 
were visited, when all their prospects were blasted by the- En- 
glish conquest of Canada, in 1G29. On its restoration the 
French court offered the Canada missions to the Capucins, but, 
on their recommendation, committ(?d it to the Jesuits alone. 

Brebeuf, for the second time, reached Upper Canada, and 
labored zealously on till the Huron nation was annihilated by the 
Iroquois. Twenty-one missionaries at different times came to 
share his toils, and of these eight like h'mielf perished by hostile 
hands, martyrs to their faith and zeal, a nobler body of heroes 
than any other part of our country can boast. On the deaths of 
Brebeuf and Gamier, in 1G50, the ruin of the Hurons and Petuns 
was consummated. The survivors lied and blended into one 
tribe, soon divided into two great parties, one composed entirely 
of Christians, repairing to Quebec to settle on Orleans island, 
whose descendants are still lingering at Lorette ; the other, part 
Christians, part pagans, fled at last to Mackinaw, but pursued 
constantly by the Iroquois, they next settled on some islands at 
the mouth of Green Bay, where they seem to have been in Me- 
nard's time; later still, after roaming to the lodges of the Sioux 
on the Mississij)pi, they came to pitch their cabins by the mission 
cross planted by Allouez, at Chegoimegon, and here Marquette 
had found them. Such is the tale of their wanderings, till tho 
period of our narrative. 



30 THE MISSISSirPI VALLEY. 

Mackinaw, where tliey now rested, was indeed a bleak spot to 
begin a new home; it was a point of land almost encompassed by 
wind-tossed lakes, icy as Siberian Avaters. The cold was intense, 
and cultivation difficult; but the Avaters teemed with fi.^h, and 
the very danger and hardships of their capture gave it new zest. 
Besides this, it was a central point for trade, and so additionally 
recommended to the Huron, who still, as of old, sought to ad- 
vance his worldly prospects by commerce. 

Stationed in this new spot. Father Marcpiette's first care was 
to raise a chapel. Rude and uiishapely was the first sylvan 
shrine raised by catholicity at Mackinaw; its sides of logs, its 
roof of bark had nothing to impress the senses, nothing to win 
by a dazzling exterior the wayward child of the forest; all was as 
simple as the faith he taught. Such was the origin of the mis- 
sion of St. Ignatius, or Michilimackinac, already in a manner 
begun the previous year by missionary labors on the island of 
that name. The Hurons soon built near the chapel a palisade 
fort, less stout and skillful indeed than the fortresses found in 
among their kindred Iroquois by Cartier and Champlain, but in 
their declining state sufficient for their defense. 

No details of Marquette's labors during the first year have 
reached us; he wrote no letters to recount his wanderings, but of 
the second year we are better informed. An unpublished manu- 
script gives us the following letter addressed to Father Dablon: 

''Eev. Father: The Hurons, called Tionnontateronnous or 
Petun nation, who compose the mission of St. Ignatius at Michi- 
limakinong began last year near the chapel a fort inclosing all 
their cabins. They have come regularly to prayers, and have 
listened more readily to the instructions I gave them, consenting 
to what I required to prevent their disorders and abominable cus- 
toms. AVe must have patience with untutored minds, Avho know 
only the devil, who like their ancestors have been his skives, and 
who often relapse into the sins in which they were nurtured. 
God alone can fix these fickle minds, and place and keep them in 
His grace, and touch their hearts whilo we stammer at their 
ears. 

" The Tionnontatcronuons number this year three hundred 
and eighty souls, and besides sixty Outaouasinagaux have joined 



THE Ml^Srs^Sim VALLEY. 31 

them. Some of those cjimc from tlie mission of St. Francis 
Xiivier, where Fiither Andre wintered with tliem last year; they 
are quite changed from wiiat 1 saw thiun at J.apointe; tlie zeal 
and patience of tliat missionary have gained to tlie faith those 
hearts which seemed to us most averse to it. They now wish to 
he Christians; they hring their children to the chapel to he haj)- 
tized, and come regularly to ])rayei-s. 

*' Having heen ohliged to go to St. ]\[arie du Sault with Father 
Allouez last summer, the llurons came to the chapel during my 
ahsence as regularly as if I had heen there, the girls singing what 
prayers they knew. They counted the days of my ahsence, and 
constantly asked when I was to he hack; I Avas absent only four- 
teen days, and on my arrival all assembled at chapel, some com- 
ing even from their fields, Avhicli are at a very considerable dis- 
tance. 

^^I went readily to their pumpkin-feast, where I instructed 
them, and invited them to thank God, who gave them food in 
plenty, while other tribes that had not yet embraced Christian- 
ity, were actually struggling with famine. I ridiculed dreams, 
and nrged those who had been baptized to acknowledge Ilim, 
whose adopted children they were. Those who gave the feast, 
though still idolaters, spoke in high terms of Christianity, and 
openly made the sign of the cross before all present. Some 
young men, whom they had tried by ridicule to prevent from 
doing it, persevered, and make the sign of the cross in the great- 
est assemblies, even when I am not present. 

"An Indian of distinction among the Hurons, having invited 
me to a feast where the chiefs were, called them severally by 
name and told them that he wished to dechire his thoughts, that 
all might know it, namely, that he was a C'hristian; that he 
renounced the god of dreams and all their lewd daiu'cs; that the 
black-gown was ni'.ister of his cabin; and that for nothing that 
might happen would he forsake his resolution. Delighted to 
hear this, I s[)oke more strongly than I had ever yet done, telling 
them that myoidy design was to put them in the way of heaven; 
that for this alone I remained among them; that this obliged nu^ 
to assist them at the peril of my life. As soon as anything is 
said in an assembly, it is immediately divulged through all the 
cabins, as I saw in this case by the assiduity of some in coming 
to prayers, and by the malicious efforts of others to neutralize 
my instructions. 

"Severe as the wint(u* is, it does not i)revent the Indians 
from coming to the cha})el. Some come twice a day, be the 



32 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

wind or cold what it may. Last fall I began to instruct some 
to make general confessions of their whole life, and to prepare 
others who had never confessed since their baptism. 1 would 
not have supposed that Indians could have given bo exact an 
account of all that had happened in the course of their life; 
but it was seriously done, as some took two weeks to examine 
themselves. Since then, I have perceived a marked change, so 
that they will not go even to ordinary feasts without asking my 
permission. 

''^I have this year baptized twenty-eight children, one of 
which had been brought from St. Marie du Sault, without hav- 
ing received that sacrament as the Rev. F. Henry Nouvel in- 
formed me, to put me on my guard. Without my knowing it, the 
child fell sick, but God permitted that while instructing in my 
cabin two important and sensible Indians, one asked me whether 
such a sick child was baptized. I went at once, baj^tized it, and 
it died the next night. Some of the other children too are dead, 
and now in heaven. These are the consolations which God sends 
us, which make us esteem our life more happy as it is more 
wretched. 

^^ This, rev. father, is all I give about this mission, where 
minds are now more mild, tractable, and better disposed to re- 
ceive instructions, than in any other part. lam ready, however, 
to leave it in the hands of another missionary to go on your order 
to seek new nations toward the south sea who are still unknown 
to us, and to teach them of our great God, whom they have 
hitherto unknown." 

Such was the laborious post to which this talented, yet hum- 
ble missionary condemned himself, daily subjected to the caprices 
of some, the insults and petty persecution of others, looking 
only to another world for the reward of labors which, crowned 
with the most complete success, would in the eyes of the world 
seem unimportant; but '^motives are the test of merit," and 
convinced by the studies of riper years, no less than by the early 
teachings of a mother, that the baptismal promises were a real- 
ity, he sought to open by that sacrament the doors of bliss to 
the dying infant, or more aged but repenting sinner. 



THE MISSISSIPP I VALLEY. ^ 33 



CHAPTER IX. 

In 1G72, letters from Quebec infonried him that tlie Oovcru- 
meut held taken u]) the project of exploring the Mississippi, and 
that he was the missioirtiry selected to accompany the expedition. 
His heart exulted at the prospect, thoug-h he foresaw the danger 
to which he was exposed, ;ind felt that his health was already un- 
dermined by toil and hardship, to say nothing of the danger from 
the Dakota-^, and other hostile tribes, l^ut this did not alarm 
him. The hope of a glorious martyrdom while opening the 
way to future heralds of the Cross buoyed him up, though in his 
humility he never spoke of martyrdom. To him it w^as but a 
death, ^'to cease to oifend God.'' 

The winter was spent by the two explorers in studying all that 
had yet been learned of the great river, in gathering around 
them every Indian wanderer, and amid the tawny group di-aw- 
ing their first rude map of the Mississippi, and the water-courses 
that led to it. And on this first map, traced doubtless kneeling 
on the ground, they set down the name of each tribe they were 
to pass, each important point to be met. The discovery was dan- 
gerous, but it was not to be rash : all was the result of calm, cool 
investigation, and never was chance less concerned than in the 
discovery of the Mississippi. In the spring they embarked at 
Mackinaw in two frail bark caiioes; each with his paddle in 
hand, and full of hope, they soon plied them merrily over the 
crystal waters of the lake. 

All was new to Mai-quette, and he describes, as he went along, 
the Menomonies, Green Bay, and Maskoutens, which he reached 
on the 7th of June, 1G73. He had now attained the limit of 
former discoveries, the new world was before them; they looked 
back a last adieu to the waters, which, great as the distance^ was, 
connected them with Quebec and tlieir countrymen ; they knelt on 
tlie shore to olfer, l)y a new devotion. thcMr lives, their honor, and 
their undertaking to their beloved mother the Virgin Marv Im- 
maculate; then, launching on the broad Wisconsin, they sailed 



34 "THE MISSISSIPPI VALLET. 

slowly down its curroiit, amid its vine-clad isles and its countless 
sandbars. No sound broke the gtillness^ no human form appeared, 
and at last, after sailing seven days, on the ITth of June they 
happily glided into the great river. Joy that could find no utter- 
ance in words filled the grateful heart of Marquette. The broad 
river of the Conception, as he named it, now lay before them, 
stretching away hundreds oi miles to an unknown sea. 

'^The Mississippi river,'' he writes, "has its source in several 
lakes in the country of the nations at the north; it is narrow at 
the mouth of the AYisconsin ; its current, which runs south, 
is slow and gentle. On the right is a considerable chain of very 
high mountains, and on the left fine lands ; it is in many ])laces 
studded with islands. On sounding we found ten fathoms of 
water. Its breadth varies greatly; sometimes it is three quarters 
of a league broad, and then narrows in to less than two hundred 
yards. We followed its course quietly, as it bears south and 
southeast to the forty-second degree. Then we perceive that the 
whole face of the country changes. Scarcely a forest or mountain 
is now in sight. The islands increase in beauty and are covered 
with finer trees, we see nothing but deer and elk, wild geese and 
swans unable to fly, as they are here moulting. From time to 
time Ave encounter monstrous fish, one of which struck our canoe 
with such violence that I took it for a lai-ge tree that would 
knock our frail craft to pieces.^ Another time we perceived on 
the water a bearded monster with a tiger's head, a pointed 
muzzle like a wild-cat; ears erect, a gray head but a jet black 
neck. It was the only one we beheld.^ 

" When we cast our nets we took sturgeon, and a very strange 
fish resembling a trout, l)ut Avith larger mouth and smaller eyes 
and snout. From the last projects a large bone, three fingers 
wide and a cubit long ; the end is rouiul and as wide as a hajid. 
When the fish leaps out of water the weight of this bone often 
throws it back.^ 



' This was the Mississippi cat-fish 
or silurus, which attains an enor- 
mous size. 



- Probably an American tiger- 
cat. 
^ The spatula. 



THE MlSHlSSirn VALLEY. 35 

" Having desceiuled the river to 41° 28' still keeping the same 
direction, we I'ouml that turkeys took the place of other wild 
hirds, and wild cattle' replaced other animals. We call them 
wild cattle, because they resemble onr domestic ones. They 
are not longer, but almost as bulky again and more corpu- 
lent. Onr men killed one, and the three of ns could move it 
only with great diflficulty. The head is very large, the forehead 
flat and a half yard broad between the liorns, which resemble 
exactly those of our oxen, but are black and longer. A large 
crop hangs down from the neck, and there is a high hump on 
the back. The whole head, neck, and part of the shoulders are 
covered with a great mane like a horse's ; it is a foot long and 
gives them a hideous appearance, and as it falls over the eyes 
prevents their seeing straight ahead. The rest of the body is 
covered with a coarse curly hair like the wool of our sheep, but 
much stronger and thicker. This is shed every summer, and 
then the skin is as soft as velvet. At this time the Indians 
employ the skins to make beautiful robes, which they paint with 
various colors. The flesh and fat are excellent, and furnish the 
best dish at banquets. They are very fierce, and not a year passes 
withont tlieir killing some Indian. When attacked they take a 
man with their horns, if they can, lift him up, and then dash 
him on the ground, and trample him to death. When you fire 
at them from a distance with gun or bow, you must throw your- 
self on the ground as soon as you fire, and hide in the grass, for 
if they perceive the person who fired, they rush on him and 
attack him. As their feet are large and rather short, they do 
not generally move fast, unless they are provoked. They are 
scattered over the prairies like herds of cattle. I have seen four 
hundred of them in a band." 

At last, on the 25th of June, they descried foot-prints on the 
shore. They now took heart again, and Jolliet and the mis- 
sionary, leaving their five men in the canoes, followed a little 
beaten path to discover who the tribe might be. They traveled 

' Buffalo. 



36 



THE 31ISSISSTPPI VALLEY. 



on in silence almost to the cabin doors, when they halted, and 
with a loud halloo proclaimed their coming. Three vdlages lay 
before them ; the first, roused by the cr}^, poured forth its motley 
group, which halted at the sight of the new-comers and the well- 
known dress of the missionary. 

'^'They deputed four old men to come and speak with us,'' 
says Marquette. *^^ Two carried tobacco pipes richly adorned and 
trimmed with feathers of many kinds. They walked slowly, 
lifting their pipes toward the sun, as if offering them to him to 
smoke, but yet without uttering a single word. They were a 
long time coming the short distance between us and the village. 
Having at last reached us, they stopped to examine us carefully. 
On seeing these ceremonies which are used only with friends, I 
took courage, more especially as I saw they wore European goods, 
which made me judge them to be allies of the French. I there- 
fore spoke to them first/ and asked them who they were. They 
answered : ^ We are Illinois,^ and in token of peace they offered 
us their pipes to smoke. They then invited us to their village, 
where the whole tribe impatiently awaited us. 

^^ At the door of the cabin in which we were to be received 
was an old man awaiting us in a very remarkable attitude. It is 
their usual ceremony in receiving strangers. This man stood 
perfectly naked with his hands stretched out and raised toward 
the sun, as if he wished to screen himself from its rays, which 
nevertheless passe<:l through his fingers to his face. When we 
came near him, he addressed this compliment to us: ''How 
beautiful is the sun, Frenchman, when thou comest to visit us ! 
All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt enter all our cabins in 
peace.^^ He then took us into his, where there was a crowd of 
people, who devoured us with their eyes, but maintained the 
deepest silence. We heard, however, these words occasionally 
addressed to us : ' Well done, brothers, to visit us! ' '' 



' The Illinois were of the Algon- 
quin race, and as Marquette spoke 
several Algonquin languages, an J 
knew some Illinois, he could con- 



verse with them. 

-Longfellow has introduced this 
Illinois address to Marquette almost 
literally in his poem Hiawatha. 



THE MISSTSSIPPI VALLEY. 37 

Then the great peace calumet was brought and solemnly 
smoked, and the two Frenchmen were conducted to the village 
of the great sachem. Here too they were received with pomp, 
and the calumet was again smoked. ]\Iarquette explained the 
object of their voyage to visit the nations living on the great 
river, and announce to them the word of God their Creator. 
They told the Illinois that they were sent by the great chief of 
the French, and asked information as to the nations between 
them and the sea. 

The sachem presented them an Indian slave, saying: "1 
thank thee, Blackgown,' and thee. Frenchman, for taking so 
much pains to come and visit ns; never has the earth been so 
beautiful, nor the sun so bright as to-day; never has our river been 
so calm, nor so free from rocks, which your canoes have removed 
as they passed; never has our tobacco had so fine a flavor, nor 
our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it to-day. Here is 
my son, whom I give thee, that thou mayst know my heart. I 
pray thee to take pity on me and all my nation. Thou knowest 
the Great Spirit Who has made us all; thou speakest to Him and 
hearest His word. Ask Him to give me life and health, and 
come and dwell with us that we may know Him." 

They feasted the two Frenchmen, and gave them a calumet 
'-f peace as a safeguard against hostile tribes, but they warned 
them of the danger of their undertaking, and tried to persuade 
them to go no further. 

^ The Indian term for a Jesuit missiouary. 



38 THE 3imSISSJPPI VALLEY. 



CHAPTER X. 

Atotchaisi — ah-to-tcha'-si. T&jiihsika.—pah-pee-hah'-kaJL 

"HLoXorQ.—mah-to -rah. Xavier — zah'-tieea. 

After friendly greetings at this town of Pewaria and the 
neighboring one of Moingwena they returned to tlieir canoes^, 
escorted by the wondering tribe, who gave their hardy visitants 
a calumet, the safeguard of the AVest. With renewed courage, 
lighter hearts, they sailed on, and, passing a high rock with 
strange and monstrous forms depicted on its rugged surface, they 
heard in the distance the roaring as of a mighty cataract, and 
soon beheld Pekitanoui, or the muddy river, as the Algonquins 
call the Missouri, rushing like some untamed monster into the 
cahn and clear Mississippi, and hurrying in with its muddy Avaters 
the trees which it had rooted up in its impetuous course. 

Already had the missionaries heard of the river running to the 
western sea, to be reached by the branches of the Mississippi ; and 
Marquette, now better informed, fondly hoped to reach it one day 
by the Missouri. But now their course lay south, and passing a 
dangerous edd}^, the demon of the western Indians, they marked 
the Waboukigou, or Ohio, the river of the Shawnees, and still 
holding on their way, came to the warm land of the cane, and 
the country which the mosquitoes might call their own. While 
enveloped in their sails as a shelter from them, they came upon a 
tribe who invited them to the shore. They were wild wander- 
ers, for they had guns bought of Catholic Europeans to the east. 

Thus far all had been friendly; and encouraged by this second 
meeting, they plied their oars anew, and, amid groves of cotton- 
wood on either side, they descended to the 33d degree, where 
for the first time a hostile reception seemed promised by the ex- 
cited Metchigameas. Too few to resist, their only hope on earth 
was the mysterious calumet, and in the protection of heaven. 
At last the storm subsided and they were received in peace; 
the language formed an obstacle, but an interpreter was fouiul; 



THE MI1S8ISSHTI VALLEY. 39 

aiul after explaining the object of their coming, and annoiinf'ing 
the great truths of Christianity, they embarked for Akamsea, a 
village thirty miles below on the eastern shore. Here they were 
well received, and learned that the mouth of the river was but 
ten days' s lil from this village ; but they heard too of nations 
there trading with Europeans, and of wars between the tribes, 
and the two explorers spent a night in consnltation. 

^' After having attentively considered that we were not far 
from the Gulf of Mexico, the basin of which is 31° 40' north, 
and we at 33° 40', so that we could not be more than two or three 
days' sail from it; that the Mississippi undoubtedly had its mouth 
in Florida, emptying into the Gnlf of Mexico, and not on the 
east in Virginia, the sea-coast of which is about 34° noi'tli, which 
we had passed without having as yet reached the sea; nor to the 
west in California, because that would require a west or west- 
southwest course, and we had always been going south. We con- 
sidered, moreover, that we risked losing the fruit of this voyage, 
of which we could make no report; if we threw ourselves into 
the hands of the Spaniards, they would bej^ond doubt detain us 
as prisoners, if they did no worse. Besides, it was clear that we 
were not in a condition to resist Indians, who infested the lower 
part of the river, and were numerous and expert in using fire- 
arms, which they obtained from European allies. Finally, we had 
gathered all the information that could be desired from the 
expedition. All these reasons induced us to resolve to turn back. 
We announced our decision to the Indians, and after a day's rest 
prepared to ascend the river." 

Thus far only Marquette traced the map, and he put down 
the names of other tribes of which they heard. Of these in the 
Atotchasi, Matora, and Papihaka we recognize Arkansag tribes, 
lie mentions also the Coroys and Tunicas, Pawnees, and Omahas, 
Ktmsas and Apaches, tribes which are well known in after-days. 
Tlie explorers accordingly set out from Akamsea on the 17th of 
July to return. Passing the Missouri again, tliey entered the 
Illinois, and, meeting the friendly Kaskaskias at its upper i)ort- 
age, were led by them in a kind of triumpli to I.ake Michigan, 



4Q THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

for Marquette had promised to return and instruct them in the 
faith. Sailing along the lake, they crossed the outer peninsula 
of Green Bay, and reached the mission of St. Francis Xavier just 
four months after their departure from it. 

Thus had the missionaries achieved their long-projected work. 
The triumph of the age was thus completed in the discovery and 
exploration of the Mississippi, which threw open to France the 
richest, most fertile and accessible territory in the New World. 
Marquette, whose health had been severely tried in this voyage, 
remained at St. Francis to recruit his strength before resuming 
his wonted missionary labors, for he sought no laurels, he aspired 
to no tinsel praise. 

JoUiet, who had like Marquette drawn up a journal and 
map of his voyage, set out (probably in the spring) for 
Quebec, to report to the Governor of Canada the result of his 
expedition, and took with him an Indian boy, doubtless the 
young slave given them by the great chief of the Illinois. 
Unfortunately, while shooting the rapids above Montreal, his 
canoe turned, and he barely escaped with his life, losing all his 
papers and his Indian companion.' What route he had fol- 
lowed from Mackinaw, we do not know ; but he seems to have 
descended by Detroit Eiver, Lake Erie, and Niagara, asFrontenac, 
announcing his return to the Government in France, says: ''He 
has found admirable countries, and so easy a navigation by the 
beautiful river which he fouiul that from Lake Ontario and 
Fort Frontenac you can go in barks to tlie Gulf of Mexico, there 
being but one discharge to be made — at the place where Lake 
Erie falls into Lake Ontario." 

Separated, as he was, from Marquette, and deprived of his 
papers by the accident, Jolliet drew up a narrative of his voyage 
from recollection, and also sketched a map, which Frontenac 
transmitted to France in November, 1074, three months after 
JoUiet's arrival at Quebec. The loss of Jolliet's narrative and 



' Marquette made a map, Avliich 
was published some years a^o in 
J^Qw York. Jolliet drew up from 



memory a map, which has been 
more recently discovered in France 

and ])ublisbed. 



THK MTSSTSSlPPt VALLKY 



41 



map now gave the highest importance to tliose in tlio liaiids 
of the missionaries. These Frontenac promised to send; and 
Father ]\Iarquotte, as we find hy his antograph letter, trans- 
mitted copies to his superior, at his request, prior to October ; 
and the French Government was undoubtedly possessed, in 
1G75, of Marquette's journal and map, and fully aSvare of the 
great advantage to be derived from the discoveries made, 
either for communication direct with France from Illinois, or of 
seeking the nearest road to the Gulf of California and the Pacific 
by the western tributaries of the Mississippi. *''"' These, '^ says 
Frontenac, ^''are projects we can take in hand when peace is 
well established and it shall please his Majesty to carry out the 
exploration.'' 

The court allowed the whole affair to pass unnoticed. ^^jMar- 
quette's Xarrative" was not published and the "Jesuit Relations" 
Avere apparently jn-ohibited ; so that it would not perha2)s have 
seen the light to our days had not Thevenot obtained a copy of 
the narrative and a maj), which he published in 1G81. France 
would have derived no benefit from this discovery but for the 
enterprise and persevering courage of Robert Cavelier de la Salle.' 
When Jolliet passed down Lake Ontario, in 1674, he stopped 
at Fort Frontenac, where La Salle was then commander under 
Frontenac. He was thus one of the first to know the result of 
Jolliet's voyage, and perhaps was one of the few that saw his 
maps and journal, which Avere lost before he reached the next 
French j^ost. At the time it does not seem to have made much im- 
pression on La Salle : his great object then was to build up a for- 
tune ; and the next year he obtained a grant of Fort Frontenac, 
and the monopoly of the lake trade and a patent of nobility. 



' Robert Cavelier, who in Canada 
took the name of La Salle, was born 
at Rouen about 1635. He was pa- 
tronized by Frontenac, Governor of 
Canada, and induced many to aid 
him in liis projects of colonizing the 
lakes and Mississippi. lie obtained 
command of Fort Frontenac, near 



where Kingston is, in Canada, found- 
ed a pDst at Niagara and one on 
Illinois ; built the first sailing-vessel 
to cross Lake Erie and enter Lake 
Michigan. lie was visionary, ill- 
fitted to manage great operations, 
and, by his harshness to those under 
him, provoked his own death. 



42 yj/^ MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

His plans failed ; and instead of acquiring wealth, he found 
himself embarrassed by immense debts. He now looked for 
some new field, and, by reading the accounts of the Spanish 
adventurers, seems to have been the first to identify the great 
river of Marquette and Jolliet with the great river of He Soto. 
Tlie vast herds of bison seemed to him to afford an easy means of 
realizing all that he could hope, by enabling him to ship from 
the banks of the Missouri and Illinois direct to France, by the 
Gulf of Mexico, cargoes of buffalo-skins and wool. In 1G77 he 
repaired again to France, and, by the help of Frontenac's recom- 
mendation, obtained in the following May a patent for his dis- 
covery, and a new monopoly, and by September he was in Canada 
with Tonty and a body of mechanics and mariners, with all 
things necessary for his expedition. 



CHAPTER XL 

Crevecoeur — krev-kur' . 

The plan traced by Jolliet in Frontenac's despatch of 1674 
seemed to have been followed by La Sallo without further inves- 
tigation. As it would be necessary to unload at the Falls of Ni- 
agara, the Onghiara of the old missionaries, he resolved to build a 
ncAV fort there, and construct vessels above the cataract to ply on 
the upper lakes, and thus connect his trading-houses on the Mis- 
sissippi with Fort Frontenac, his chief and most expensive estab- 
lishment. Such was his celerity that by the 5th of December 
the first detachment of his party entered the Niagara River, and 
a site was soon selected for a fort, and for the construction of a 
vessel above the Falls. Difficulties with the Senecas finally 
compelled him to relinquish the fort, and a mere shed or store- 
house was raised. The vessel, however, went on, and he at last 
saw it glide down into the rapid current of Niagara in August, 
1679, amid the admiring crowd of Indians who gathered around 
the French. 



Tin: MISSISSIPPI \ 'ALLKY^ 43 

There was now no ohstaclo to his fui-tlicr progress, but we 
must regret tluit lie had not studied foruu'r discoveries more 
narrowly. Cue of his clear aud compreheusive mind would 
liave seized at once.the great western branch of the Mississippi, 
ah-eady known to the missionaries and the Iro(]Uois. By his 
l)reseiit plans he had to build one vessel above the falls of Niag- 
ara, and a second on the Illinois River : one on the Ohio, so 
easily reached by the Alleghany, would liave carried him to the 
Gulf, and he would thus have avoided the various troubles which 
so long retarded his reaching the mouth of the ^lississippi. Tie 
sailed to Green Bay, but found that he had arrayed against liitn 
all the private traders of the West, by sending men to trade, con- 
trary to his patent, which expressly excepted the Ottawa coun- 
try. Of this he soon felt the effects, his men began to desert, 
and, to crown all his misfortunes, his new vessel, the Griffon, was 
lost on her way back to Niagara. Before this catastrophe he had 
set out to descend Lake Michigan. He built a kind of fort at 
the mouth of the St. Joseph's, and sounded its channel, and at 
last, in December, proceeded to enter the Kankakee, a branch of 
the Illinois, by a portage from the St. Joseph's. 

Disheartened by the desertion and disaffection of his men, and 
by the want of all tidings of his vessel, he began the erection of 
Fort Crevecoeur, and of a vessel near the Illinois camps below 
Lake Peoria. The vessel he had finally to abandon for want of 
proper materials to complete it, and he set out almost alone for 
Fort Frontenac by land, after sending Father Hennepin to ex- 
plore the Illinois to its mouth. That missionary went farther; 
voluntarily or as a prisoner of the Sioux, he seemed to have as- 
cended as far as St. Anthony's Falls, which owes its name to him. 
His exploration of the Mississippi between the Illinois River and 
St. Anthony's Falls took place in 1(580, between the months of 
March and September. When delivered by De Lhut, he re- 
turned to Mackinaw, and thence in the spring almost direct to 
Quebec and Europe. By 1G83 he published, at ]*aris, an ac- 
count of his voyage, nnder the title of " Description de la Loui- 
siane,"Avhicli, after the " Relations" and ^' Marquette's Narrative," 



44 TH^ MissmsiFPi valley. 

is the next work relative to the Mississippi, and contains the 
first printed description of that river abovQ the mouth of the 
Wisconsin from actual observation. 

After Hennepin started from Fort Crevecneur, La Salle, leav- 
ing the brave Italian, Chevalier de Tonty, in command of his 
feeble fort and half-finished vessel, set out boldly to thread his 
way to Canada. It was the boldest and most heroic act of nis 
life: but the position of affairs admitted of no delay. Of his 
vessel, the Griffon, he had received no tidings since it sailed from 
Green Bay with its load of peltries on which he depended to meet 
his creditors. From his fort at Frontenac and liis post at Niagara 
no message came. His jn-esence was needed to restore order and 
system, and to secure regular communication with the west. It 
was in lack of ability to provide for all these essential points that 
we see the weakness of his character. Nothing seemed to move 
forward excej^t when he was actually present. In his absence 
disaster to his interests seemed inevitable. 

He had not been long absent from Fort Crevecceur when Tonty 
saw the Illinois country invaded by an immense Iroquois army. 
In his endeavor to prevent hostilities, Tonty was himself wounded 
by a Seneca brave. Tlie Illinois fled, pursued by their inveterate 
foes. Tonty saw that the works raised would afford no protection 
for the little party of Frenchmen, and set out to make his way 
to the French mission post at Green Bay. His party had not 
advanced far when, at a portage, the aged Franciscan priest, 
Father Gabriel de la Ribourde, was slain by prowling Kickapoos. 
Failing to find him, when his loss was discovered, Tonty pushed 
on with the rest of his party and reached Green Bay, to enjoy 
the hospitality of the Jesuit missionaries. Later on he proceeded 
to Mackinaw, and there awaited the return of his commander. 

So far nothing had been gained. The expedition had gained 
no foothold, and beyond the old French mission station there was 
not a white man, except some daring bushranger who defied alike 
the Canadian laws and Indian cruelty in his pursuit of furs. 



THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 45 

CHAPTER XII. 

Membre — mom-brCi . Penalosa — pan yah-Ui -sah. Beaujeu — ho-zhar . 

La Salle returned to Illinois in 1G81, and to his surprise 
found liis fort desei-ted. lie soon after met the survivors of his 
first expedition at Mackinaw, and set about new preparations for 
his great work. In January, 1G82, he was again with Ids party at 
tlie extremity of Lake Michigan, and, entering the Chicago River, 
followed the old line of Father Marquette,reached Fort Crevecanir 
once more, and at last began in earnest his voyage down the Mis- 
sissippi. He had abandoned the idea of sailing down in a ship, 
and resolved to go in boats, ascertain accurately the position of its 
mouthy and theli return to France and sail direct with a colony for 
the mouth and ascend to some convenient place. 

On the 6th of February the little expedition, apparently in 
three large beats or canoes, conducted by La Salle and his lieu- 
tenants Tonty and Dautray, with Father Zenobius Membre as 
their chaplain, and Indians as hunters and guides, entered the 
wide waters of the Mississippi, which henceforward, in the narra- 
tives of La Salle's companions, assumes the name of Colbert. 
They passed the mouth of the muddy Missouri, and farther on 
tlie deserted village of the Tamaroas, and next the Ohio, where 
the marshy land began that prevented their landing. Detained 
soon after by the loss of one of his men. La Salle encamped on 
the bluff, and fell in with some Chickasaws ; then proceeding on, 
at last, on the 3d. of March, was roused by the war-cries and 
rattling drums of an Arkansas village. He had reached the 
limit of JoUiet's voyage : henceforward he was to be the first 
French explorer. 

Warlike as the greeting was. La Salle entered into friendly 
relations with the Arkansas, and spent several days in their village. 
Here a cross was planted, with the arms of the French King, and 
the missionary endeavored by interpreters and signs to give some 



46 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLET. 

idea of Christianity. On the 17th, La Salle embarked again, 
and, passing two more Arkansas towns, reached the populous 
tribe of the Taensas in their houses of clay and straw, with 
roofs of cane, themselves attired in mantles woven of white 
pliant bark, and showing Eastern reverence for their monarch, 
who in great ceremony visited the envoys of the French. Pur- 
suing his course, the party next came to the Natchez, where 
another cross was planted, and, visiting the Koroas, proceeded on 
till the river divided into two branches. Following the westerly 
one, they sailed past the Quinipissas and the pillaged town of 
another tribe, till they reached the delta, on the 6th of April. 
La Salle and his two lieutenants, each taking a separate channel, 
advanced, full of hope ; the brackish water, growing Salter as 
they proceeded, being a sure index of the sea, which they 
reached at last on the 9th of April, 1682, sixty-two days after their 
entering the Mississippi. 

The French had thus at last, in the two expeditions of Jol- 
liet and La Salle, completely explored the river from the Falls of 
St. Anthony to the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle then planted a 
cross, with the arms of France, amid the solemn chant of hymns 
of thanksgiving, and in the name of the French King took pos- 
session of the river, of all its branches, and the territory watered 
by them ; and the notary drew up an authentic act, which all 
signed with beating hearts ; and a leaden plate with the arms of 
France and the names of the discoverers was, amid the rattle of 
musketry, deposited in the earth. 

La Salle then ascended again to Illinois, and despatched Father 
Zenobius Membre to France to lay an account of his voyage 
before the Goverjiment. He sailed from Quebec on the 15t]i of 
November with Frontenac, and the course of the Mississippi Avas 
known in France before the close of 1682. 

La Salle himself visited France, but instead of endeavoring 
to obtain means to establish any great trading-posts on the banks 
of the Mississippi, as he had intended originally, he was led into 
a project which seemed to promise immense and speedy wealth. 
A Spanish refugee in France, one Diego de Pefialosa, who had 



TBE MISSISSIPPI VALLEt. 47 

been governor of New Mexico, had laid before tlie French court 
plans for an expedition to seize the rich mining-country of 
northei'u Mexico, especially naming Santa Barbara as rich beyond 
description, lie gave the prime minister Seignelay a fictitious 
narrative of an expedition which he pretended to have made from 
Santa Fe to the banks of the Mississippi. La Salle entered into 
the project, the French Government gave him assistance and 
jiut at his disposal for a time a ship from the royal navy com 
manded by Beaujeu. The expedition was joined in Saint Do- 
mingo by some buccaneers, and finally landed in Matagorda 
Bay, Texas. One of the vessels was lost entering the harbor. 
Beaujeu sailed buck to France, according to his orders, 
leaving La Salle to await the coming of Penalosa with 
the main force. La Salle threw up a rude fort, and began to 
explore the country, but no reinforcement, or supplies arrived. 
His colony was thinning by disease and by Indian hostility 
llis last vessel was wrecked by treacherous or blundering misman- 
agement. 

Soured and disappointed, he wasted time and lost men in 
excursions through the neighboring country, which led to no 
result, except finding the powerful nation of the Cenis, who were 
far more friendly than the tribes on the coast. At last he gave 
up all hope of receiving reinforcements from France, or even 
supplies for his little colony. He felt that the government and 
his friends had abandoned him, and that he must as soon as i)OS- 
sible extricate himself and his peojile from the terrible position 
in which they were, where death stared them in the face. 

On the 7th of January, 1087, he divided the little band of 
forty survivors, and leaving the women and children with a few 
men, numbering about twenty in all, at the little fort, started 
about as many more to reach the Mississippi. It was a fatal 
error. Those left behind nearly all jierished by small-pox or 
Indian violence. 

La Salle pushed on with his party and crossed the Brazos on 
the 14th of March. Three days afterward a mutiny broke out 
in a hunting camp where some of the party were drying meat as 



48 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

a provision for their march. La Salle's nephew^ his servant, 
and a faithful Indian were murdered. On the 20th the com- 
mander, hearing nothing from the hunting party, set out with 
Father Douay. Seeing some birds of prey hovering over a spot, 
he fired at them. The mutineers, hearing this, crossed a river, 
and one of them, Duhaut, hid iii the tall grass. La Salle saw 
the other, and asked for his nephew. The next moment Duhaut 
fired; his ball struck La Salle full in the forehead, and he fell, 
life ebbing away as the faithful minister of religion knelt beside 
him. 

His temper, always overbearing to those under him, had been 
rendered extremely harsh and stern by the blasting of all his 
hopes. This provoked the mutiny, of which he thus fell a victim 
on a lone Texas prairie. Father Anastasius Douay, La Salle's 
brother. Rev. Mr. Cavelier, and a few others reached a French 
post on the Arkansas River. 

Thus La Salle never again beheld the Mississippi, on which 
he had built his hopes and dreams of greatness: leaving in history 
a name that will always be regarded with interest. He was a 
man of projects, a flatterer of the great, but lacked commercial 
knowledge, the power of commanding men, and practical skill 
to carry out works essential for colonization. * 

His faithful lieutenant Tonty, seeking him again,descended the 
Mississij)pi to its mouth, never dreaming that La Salle was then 
actually so near him, and returned discouraged. But the great 
highway of our country was at last opened. It was soon con- 
stantly traveled by the adventurous trader, and the still more 
adventurous missionary. A Spanish vessel under Andrew de Pes 
entered the mouth; in 1G9J, the Canadian Iberville,' more fortu- 
nate than La Salle, entered it with Father Anastasius Douay, who 



' Peter Le Moyne d'Iberville was 
born ut Montreal, July 20, 16G1. He 
took Fort Nelson, on Hudson Bay, 
from ihe English, served on the 
expedition against Schenectady, 
fought the English vessels with 



success in Newfoundland and Hud- 
son Bay, and erected a fort at the 
mouth of the Mississippi in 1699 and 
founded the colony of Louisiana. 
He died at Havana, Cuba, in 1706. 



THE MlSSIHSlPPr VAL LKY. 49 

had accompanied tliat unfortunate adventurer on liis last voyage. 
Missionaries from Canada soon came to greet him, and Le Sueur 
ascended the Mississippi to St. Peter's River, and built a log fort 
on its blue-earth tributary. 



TEXT QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW. 

1. To whom is the credit due of first discovery of IMissiisippi ? By 
whom was he sent? 

2. What name did it take on Spanish maps ? 

3. What Spanish commander perished near the mouth of the Mississippi 
few of his expedition escaping? 

4. What two Spanish expeditions resulted from tlie reports of Cabeza 
de Vaca and Father Mark ? Where did they nearly meet ? 

5. Where did Soto die ? 

6. What Spanish commander attempted to settle Peusacola and 
marched to the Mississippi ? 

7. What led to the Spanish colonization of New Mexico and expe- 
ditions towards the Mississippi ? 

8. When did the French in Canada first begin to hear of a great river 
in the west running southward ? and what explorer approached it most 
nearly ? 

9. What prevented the French missionaries from reaching it ? What 
did they report about it ? 

10. Who was selected by the Canadian Government to explore it, and 
what missionary joined him ? 

11. How far did they descend the Mississippi? 

12. IIow and where did Marquette die ? and how was Jolliet rewarded ? 

13. Who obtained permission to colonize the Mississippi and control the 
fur trade ? 

14. What fort did he establish in Illinois? Who explored 'the upper 
Mississippi? When did La Salle descend the Mississippi? 

15. Into what strange project against the Spaniards was he led ? 

16. When did he sail from France ? and where did his expedition land ? 

17. Describe what led to his death. 

18. Who first reached the mouth of the Mississippi from France by sea 
and founded Louisiana? 



English classic Series, 

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English Classic Series, 

For. 
Classes in English Literature, Reading, Grammar, etc. 

EDITED BY EMINENT ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SCHOLARS. 

Each Volume contains a Sketch of the Author's Life, Prefatory and 
Explanatui-y Notes, etc., etc. 



1 Byron's Prophecy of Dante. 

(Cantos I. and II.) 

2 Milton's Li'Allegro, and II Pen- 

seroso. 

3 Liord Bacon's Essays, Civil and 

]>Ioral. (Selected.) 

4 Byron's Prisoner of Chillon, 

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(Lalla Rookh. Selected.) 

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